RE: [Epic] Army Sizes

From: Miller, Chris <CMiller_at_...>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 09:36:42 -0500

>
> While it's undoubtedly true that GW tends to ignore the incredible size
>of the WH40k universe, ya shouldn't forget that planetary engagements
>ultimately come down to company and battalion sized engagements. While
>admittedly in a given battle there can be hundreds of thousands involved,
>for the soldiers in the conflict it comes down to a fairly small group of
>people who pose an immediate threat.
> In my epic games I usually assume that the board edges represent not
>some kind of impassible terrain or something, but the edges of the next
>formations over. It's off limits because its full of troops and its not the
>bit you're responsible for. This works best when your massive warband fills
>up the table from edge to edge, but in a more open battle, you can
>certainly imagine that similar small engagements are being fought on either
>side, and out beyond that...
>
-----> This isn't a bad way to look at it. It's just the "massive
battles" etc.
fluff has to be disposed of to a degree. It's ironic when you compare
the
two main sf games from Gw to a pair of WW2 boardgames: WH40K is
like Ambush!, a solitaire game form Victory Games which won some
awards. Both deal with individual troopers, they can carry a variety of
weapons, morale plays a role in both games, and tanks and other
vehicles are something of a rarity and it's mainly about the infantry.
OK, both of these games are presented as small scale, skirmish
type games-fine, they are.
        Then look at Epic - the main units are infantry squads and half-
squads, and individual tanks. This is called huge, epic, etc.
The WW2 game closest to this - individual squads, half-squads,
and tanks, with a few special leaders and some artillery and rules
for individual aircraft providing ground support - is Squad Leader!
It's a tactical game! It's the fighting in one town or one part of a
town! It's a _very_ small scale fight! Now, granted, in most scenarios
there will be less than 50 units on each side, but that's mainly
because the rules are so involved the game would take forever
with more, not for any limit on units themselves. Isn't it weird
that in one "universe" this scale is considered so small, and in
another it's considered "epic"?
        The main reason I posted the numbers earlier was to throw
some perspective on "how many is a lot" when we start talking
about points vs troops vs #of titans in the universe etc. Some
people think 1000 troops are a lot, when for most battles they
are rather small, let alone a world or an Empire spanning
multiple planets...you probably aren't fighting a battle, only
a part of a battle.

Chris Miller
Received on Wed Jul 23 1997 - 14:36:42 UTC